Smoke
by Odat
Summary: He'd been gone a lot longer than he should have been. She watched the smoke curl around the room as he watched it fill the sky.


The match streaked across the lighter, and caught fire, flaring up and illuminating the room before dying down to a soft glow. Once the incense was lit, the match was waved out, and then gently the incense blown out until there was just a lazy curl of smoke.

A tree caught fire, its dry leaves curling and burning quickly. Another fireball streaked by to hit the ground. The grass was brown and crisp and it burned at quickly as the leaves of the trees above. Only rain would be able to put this fire out.

She looked out the window, it had begun to rain, hard too. They needed this rain badly, the drought had been almost two months long and the ground was parched. The rain came down hard against the window, and little rivers began to form. The ground was too dry to hold the water, the rivers joined together and swept past the door of the house. Thunder rumbled and shook her down to her core. Hugging her knees to herself, she watched the window. _Please be ok._

He jumped from the branch he was on to another as the tree caught fire and fell. The fire he'd created was too big and he hadn't been able to contain it. The rain was helping, the ground was so dry no water was being absorbed and streams were forming. He was thankful for them, the fire that had been on the ground had been put out. But that gave the enemy another surface to fight on. Thunder shook him to the bone as he ran. _I'll be back soon_.

Sakura sat close to the incense and watched the smoke. Sometimes it would billow out, or swirl around and then float away. It was fascinating. She reached up to grab it, trying to feel it. She waited, patiently in the middle of the bare room. The cabin was sparse, but it was only for prolonged missions that were heading home. Better than a tent in this weather. The roof, old and falling apart did leak however. Buckets and pans were placed about the room to avoid getting the floor wet.

The incense made her dizzy, but it calmed Sakura, he'd been gone much longer than he should have been. They had been heading home after a hard mission when they were attacked by missing nin. It wasn't a particularly hard battle, but both he and Sakura had sustained wounds. It wasn't until he collapsed that she realized her mistake. Poison.

She had picked him up, thanking Tsunade mentally for the strength, and carried him to the cabin where she had been able to extract the poison before she fainted. When she came to a few minutes later, he was waking up too. He looked at her and placed a hand on her shoulder knowing what she needed. Using his chakra she had taken most of the poison out of her system. She could tell he was fading fast, tired and feeling the lingering effects of the poison.

"They'll come back." She said in a quiet voice, it was an interesting tactic, poison then leave, and when the poison takes effect come back and finish the job. She didn't have to voice this, he knew it too, but she did anyway. The hand on her shoulder circled around to her other shoulder and his other arm wrapped around her waist. Together the two arms pulled her towards his chest and held her there.

"We'll sleep now. Then I'll go and meet them before they get here." He'd said to her. His voice soft and deep in her hair and his lips brushing and teasing the shell of her ear.

Sasuke side stepped a kunai, and then another. There were only two missing nin left. And they knew it, there appeared to be an unspoken agreement between the two of them. They would die, but not before they killed Sasuke. Lightening illuminated the clearing that he had just run into, giving his position away. He cursed and ran back into the burning trees. The smoke was thick and he couldn't breathe. It was hot, and burned his eyes making them tear. The rain was helping, many of the fires had been put out, and there was only one large one left. The one that he was currently hiding in.

Sasuke had left the cabin, he had listened to her protests that she could help, let her fight too. But they were only for old time's sake. They both knew she needed to rest. Finding and taking the poison out had eaten away at her chakra. Not even the little sleep they had gotten had been enough to replenish any of it. She would be in too much danger and compromise him. Not that he wasn't already.

He'd taken another poisoned senbon needle in his leg, and he could fee the poison moving around in his veins. It had to be stronger than what they used earlier, his vision was starting to blur and it was getting harder to breath. Though he tried to contribute that to the smoke he was choking on. The fire roared around him, fighting against the rain and searching for the dry tinder it wanted. Sasuke could hear the remaining nin moving around the fire looking for him.

In a desperate plan, he ran straight into the flames. He knew he didn't have long, his rain soaked clothing would provide him protection for a few minutes maximum, he had one shot to make this work. Running through the flames he managed to surprise them when he jumped out steaming with kunai in hand. The first fell to the ground before Sasuke had even touched the burnt earth. The second gave a cry of retaliation as his throat was cut, and managed to lodge his own kunai, visibly dripping with poison, into Sasuke's shoulder.

Sakura was startled out of her agitated rest by a crack of thunder and the cry of a dead man. She was on her feet and out the door before the strangled cry had died down. Fear gripped her spine, she hadn't been able to identify the voice, and for all she knew Sasuke was dead. The thought alone that some one so invincible had been defeated shook her to the core and gave her wings to fly even faster. Her mind calculating and assessing her chakra reserves, how much she could spare, what she could draw upon, and how fast she could return home with Sasuke on her back if need be. Even as she shuddered and squinted through the harsh rain she did not miss a step.

Sasuke was fading fast and the pain was unbearable. He lay flat on his back his face soothed by the cool rain as the poison set him on fire from the inside out. He hadn't dared pulling the kunai in his shoulder out, he might bleed to death if he did so. That would be a pathetic way to go, a small voice said in his head, for such a great shinobi to die of blood loss over such a simple thing would be true weakness. He didn't know how long he could last with the poison in his system though or how soon he could drag his sorry ass back to Sakura. He closed his eyes and drifted off a moment too soon and missed the rhythmic beat of shoes coming towards him.

Sakura let out her own strangled cry when she came to Sasuke. She skidded to a halt next to him and began her work immediately. The amount of poison in his system should have killed him a few minutes ago due to his elevated heart rate and the sheer amount of it. She weighed her options, she had only so much chakra to use before she put herself into a coma but he only had so long to live. The kunai in his shoulder had hit a secondary major vein, and he would bleed to death if she removed the kunai. But at the same time that would remove the poison. But the amount of blood. She decided swiftly as soon as she noticed his breathing become shallower.

In one simple motion the kunai was removed, and the blood began to flow. Sasuke gave a small yell of protest and pain before he passed out. Sakura let some seep to the ground before she began to filter it. Using her chakra she was able to extract the poison and force most of the blood back into the vein. It was risky, and the chance that when they managed to get back to Konoha Sasuke would need major blood tests were huge. But he would live. She sighed and picked him up, she would go back to the cabin, there was no way she would be able to bring him back to Konoha on her own. She would have to wait.

They lay together, the man unconscious since arrival and the woman shortly after curling up at his side. When they both awoke the next morning cold and stiff from the rain and over exertion of the day before, the little pink haired woman smiled at the disgruntled man. With a quick peck to the man's lips the woman began to heal any wounds she had been unable to heal before. The man sighed quietly, still tired, and rested on her as her gentle chakra washed through him. They stayed in the cabin for three days until they were both completely healed. Do nothing but sleeping and enjoying the down time. The pink haired woman would chuckle every now and then while the black haired man would simply smirk and smirk at her foolishness. She'd started to call it a vacation.

Finally on the last day as they were curled up enjoying each others heat and slow breathing, Sasuke rolled over to whisper into her ear "I'm back. Thank you." Sakura just smiled at him and held him as close as possible to her.


End file.
